Our Mission
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Perfect Unison Inc. is a non-profit community organization devoted to connecting music composers with classically trained musicians who can perform their works.
A Word from the Founder
Welcome to Perfect Unison! I'm a freshman at Princeton and I graduated from Juilliard Pre-College in voice and composition. The idea for Perfect Unison came to me when I started composing music three years ago. I was working on an art song for tenor/piano with a text in Ancient Latin. Once I finished my piece, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to reach out to my musician friends to perform my piece.
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It made me think of composers who may not have access to musicians to perform their pieces; I wanted them to experience being in a musical community as well. Perfect Unison will match composers with performers who play a wide array of instruments. (For more information about these artists, visit our Artists' Profile Page.) This service will be provided free for composers, while performers will receive compensation. Through this venture, we hope to build a vibrant and diverse musical community in which composers and performers can thrive harmoniously.
Neel Ram Nagarajan
Derek Balcom
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Derek Balcom is the Director of Education at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) in New York City. Mr. Balcom received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the Crane School of Music and the Teach Music in New York City Scholastic Award, leading to a two-year appointment as band director for IS 347K in Brooklyn, NY. A member of the CMS education team for over eight years, Mr. Balcom has expanded the organization’s annual reach to over 10,000 students, and introduced new initiatives for supporting chamber music instruction throughout the Tri-State region. Mr. Balcom holds an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from Rutgers Business School.
Elena Belli
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Elena Belli, pianist, concert artist and influential teacher, has appeared nationally and internationally as both soloist and chamber musician. She has collaborated with leading instrumentalists and vocalists from the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has toured throughout Europe with members of the Berlin Philharmonic with critical acclaim, notably from the Correiro del Povo in Brazil. Her New York performances have ranged from artist residencies at the Empire Center for the Performing Arts in Albany, to recitals at Merkin Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and Lincoln Center, as well as guest appearances with regional orchestras. Ms. Belli’s career is notable for its consistent tenure with ensembles, including the Music in the Mountains Festival Chamber Players, the Poné Ensemble for New Music, the New York based group Musical Chairs, and the Belli/Thomsen Duo. Her expertise extends to contemporary music, including a broad array of world premieres, some written expressly for her. She is currently the Pianist and Assistant Conductor for the West Village Chorale, with whom she has concertized throughout Croatia and Greece. Ms. Belli also Co-Chairs the AMTL Young Musicians Concert at Carnegie Recital Hall. Past faculty positions have included The New School and Concordia College. Currently, she is on the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, and the Hoff-Barthelson Music School. Ms. Belli holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.
Kamini Dandapani
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Kamini Dandapani has had extensive training in South Indian (Carnatic) vocal music, Western Classical music (piano) as well as in the classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam. She studied Carnatic music with some of the leading teachers and performers in the field. At the same time, she studied classical piano, and holds a Licentiate from Trinity College of Music, London. Simultaneously learning and being immersed in these two different classical traditions has given her a rare perspective on the similarities and differences between them across many dimensions including the theory, history, performance, performers and trends. Kamini has been a guest faculty member at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York. She is also a faculty member at the International Vocal Arts Workshop held every summer in Croatia. She teaches Carnatic music at Navatman, Inc. in New York City as well as privately, and is a member of an exciting Carnatic music ensemble, the Navatman Music Collective. She also writes extensively on South India – history, travel, music, dance, short stories, science and anything else that catches her fancy – on her blog, Tales of South India.
Dr. Ira Taxin
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Dr. Ira Taxin was born in NYC in 1950. He received degrees from Boston University and The Juilliard School, and studied with Gardner Read, Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt. Additional studies at Tanglewood were with Jacob Druckman and Donald Martino. Mr. Taxin is currently Chair of the History and Composition Departments at the Pre-College Division of Juilliard, where he has taught since 1982. He has received numerous commissions, grants, fellowships and awards for his compositions and teaching. Mr. Taxin’s works have been performed by major orchestras, and his music is recorded and published. In addition to his concert music, he has composed, arranged, directed and produced music for television, radio, educational films, feature films, video animation, commercials, musical theatre and stage works.